Tuna Ice Lollies for Cats

Animals have been suffering in the heatwave we've had recently - I've seen several reminders on Facebook not to walk dogs during the hottest part of the day. My cat spent several days moving from one spot in the living room to another, seeking out the coolest bit of floor, so when I saw this idea on the internet (on Facebook again actually) I decided to give it a go.

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Tuna ice lollies for cats - whatever will they think of next?! To make these, you simply mix the liquid from a tin of tuna in spring water (rather than brine which is too salty), with a little tap water, and freeze them in ice lolly makers.

To get the lollies out, stand the mould in a bowl of boiling water for a few seconds.

Unfortunately my cat didn't seem particularly interested but I have seen videos on the internet of cats licking these so apparently they do work at least with some animals!

Chocolate Santa Lollies: Edible Gifts for Christmas

One of my favourite things about Christmas is the opportunity - or excuse - to make edible gifts for friends and family. I was sent this Wilton chocolate Santa mould to review by Cakemart, the online cake decorating equipment store which trades in Germany as Mein Cupcake.

The Santa mould, currently £4.86, is really easy to use: you just melt some chocolate or candy melts, pour into the mould, pop in a lolly or cake pop stick and put them in the fridge to set. They came out of the moulds so easily as well - I was worried they would stick or break but I had no problems at all.

The mould itself is clear plastic but the pack comes with a piece of card on the front giving ideas for how you can decorate the lollies. I was a bit confused by the wording on the front: "Mold contains 3 designs, 3 cavities", because it made 10 lollies and they were all the same design, unless I'm missing something....

The finer details of Santa's face were a bit too tricky for me to manage - you'd need very precise piping skills I think! Instead I meted some Renshaw red Colour Melts and piped the hat and then melted some white chocolate which I poured over the top to fill the whole mould, inserting the stick at the same time.

 

For my second batch I used plain chocolate and didn't decorate them at all.

 

Each batch only took about half an hour to set in the fridge.

I then wrapped each one in a cellophane cake pop bag and tied them with festive ribbon. I am organising my work Christmas lunch this year which is very early as it was the only date everyone can do, so I plan to hand them out to each person or put one on each place setting. This is definitely a handy mould to have for relatively quick and certainly easy edible gifts and one I'm sure I will use again!



I'm sharing these with the Food Year Linkup, hosted by Charlotte's Lively Kitchen, as it's coming up to Christmas!

 

I'm also sending them to Treat Petite, hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat at the Baking Explorer, as their theme is red and green, or anything Christmas.

 

 

These also fit in with this month's We Should Cocoa, the chocolate recipe challenge created by Choclette of Tin and Thyme. It's hosted this month by Munchies and Munchkins, who has chosen the theme of Christmas.

 

 

Thanks to Cakemart for sending the Santa mould to review.